Försäkringskassan – an important part of society’s continuos digitization

Försäkringskassan, the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, has opened up their data/statistics to grow transparency, create social benefits and expand public awareness. Opening up their data is also the natural extension of the publicity principle for Försäkringskassan.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Technology progress is key to facilitating inclusiveness in the society as a whole. Citizens and companies demand to be part in the shaping of policies for- and the access to services to the things they care the most about. By opening up their data, Försäkringskassan is now making sure that people in general will become included in this participatory processes.

“Participation cannot really be considered participation if it doesn’t involve everyone, says Eric Hjelmestam, CEO at MetaSolutions. This is why we built EntryScape and why we were an integral part of the development of Försäkringskassan’s open data publishing” he continues. With the role of civil society becoming more and more important in a modern democracy such as Sweden, open data publishing processes must also become methodical. This is made possible with MetaSolutions’ EntryScape”, Eric Hjelmestam concludes.

Försäkringskassan’s commission is to distribute the majority of the benefits that are included in the Swedish social insurance system. Using open data and publishing it on oppnadata.se is an important step towards increased public knowledge as it makes it more convenient to access the authority’s statistics. In turn, Försäkringskassan has also established a channel for them to reach out to and attract IT developers.

“You can say that open data is like having a desk at the reception where all information is available to everyone “says Åsa Holmberg at Försäkringskassan’s Digital Channels division, who is working with the project.

Försäkringskassan now publishes open data in formats that follow the DCAT-AP metadata standard, mainly comma-separated values (CSV) and an associated application programming interface. The API can be used to develop more useful services and application. Försäkringskassans also appeals to companies, private citizens and developers to get in touch and make suggestions on what open data you would like to be published.